said by jgkolt :

Actually it is on my computer and works fairly well. I am very happy with the call quality and the price(free for now, and free pc to pc). This software has let numerous friends chat overseas with their families for free as well as them while they are overseas. The fact i didn't have problems with my firewall and the very low bandwidth used(especially the active compression on the call) makes it ideal.

said by Fatal Vector :

What you seem to fail to understand is that this behavior on the part of skype is malware/exploit like. It would probably be no great trick to modify the client to plant malware on your computer right through your filewall.

said by Fatal Vector :

"If you're worried about Skype, maybe it would be better not to turn your computer on at all."

What you seem to fail to understand is that this behavior on the part of skype is malware/exploit like. It would probably be no great trick to modify the client to plant malware on your computer right through your filewall.

And dont think malware authors and scum wont try now that they have been given the idea.

said by Michieru :

It's not just to make it easy to setup and run without having to be some firewall wizz, it's also about bypassing access.

said by TK Junk Mail :

And if you are running a business, you don't want your employees bypassing firewalls, for security reasons, and other reasons too. Later, we will read where Skype wonders why the business world shuns their product. Well, this is why - encouraging users to bypass legitimate firewalls.

said by karlmarx :

"It's their phone system and if they choose to monitor you, tough nuts"

And people wonder why everyone hates the megacorps. It's because of attitudes like that, attitudes that treat employees as disposable workers. That's the major problem of all the neo-con capitalists. They've all lost their humanity. I work for a smaller company, that DOESN'T monitor it's employees. We can shop, do banking, etc, all in work time. What matters to the company is that WE DO OUR JOBS. We are measured based on results, not on if there's a warm body sitting at a desk. I allow my staff absolute freedom to do what they want to do. All I ask is that they complete their tasks in a timely manner.

said by matrix3D :

That leads me to believe your company monitors its employees phone calls, which may or may not be legal. I mean look at the list of stuff you say they "allow" and stuff they don't. Porn and P2P is a quite obvious no-no at work, but MySpace? IM? All the stuff that's easy to monitor they allow.

said by AirGig :

Smaller companies, without the means to implement and manage their own VOIP system, have rightfully recognized the many efficiency and economic benefits of using Skype to foster their communications, particularly internationally.

said by sackem for using :

You will see more and more organizations that will have immediate termination clauses in employment contracts for using Skype on their corporate networks. I know we are considering it. Enforcement is not as hard as some might think.
When you have big clients who made you sign huge non-disclosure and data protection clauses in their contract, sacking someone for Skype is a cheap solution (when compared to possible leak of data and loss of business).

BTW, you can lock down systems all you want, when you have an office full of developers, there is always a way for them to make it work. So termination on the spot is the best solution.

said by John T :

Of course, there's always

3) Fear of using a closed-source, non-open standard product which turns nodes into supernodes (without saying so) and has essentially no security (Skype keeps all keys, the clients implicitly trust anything over the Skype protocol.)

There are lots of scary things about Skype from a security perspective.